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A Monster-Truck Sized (as in, very big) Day at Getaround

We’ve had a lot of big days at Getaround. From winning TechCrunch Disrupt last May to launching in Portland with $1.75 million in federal funding to landing insurance through Berkshire Hathaway—we’ve been lucky enough to have our fair share of celebrations. But today is different. It’s a huge day. One we’ve been anticipating eagerly—for quite some time. And it’s not just for us – this is the next step in the car sharing revolution, and a big day for our entire community.

We have two incredibly exciting announcements to share.

First, we’re announcing our Series A funding: $13.9 million from an incredible list of investors led by Shervin Pishevar at Menlo Ventures, with participation from Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments, Marissa Mayer, Innovation Endeavors, and many other equally amazing investors. With this funding, we’re one step closer to our goal of empowering people to car share everywhere, solving car overpopulation and helping people get around.

We’re humbled to have a stellar list of investors that believe in our mission to disrupt transportation as much as we do. Choosing investors is no easy feat—trust us, we’ve been there—so we’re thrilled to have Shervin leading our round. He’s an amazing investor already heavily involved in mobile and collaborative consumption, a visionary, and a true evangelist. Shervin’s been with us every step of the way and he’s helped us shape our strategy for the coming years.

Second, we’re also thrilled to introduce a brand new service launching in beta—one that is brand new to the industry, and one that we think will take off. Getaway, launching in beta today, gives people a chance to share their cars full-time. From managing rentals and facilitating upkeep, you get paid and we do the dirty work. It’s win-win. We’ve heard from people across the country in the past year that they had cars sitting idle—but they weren’t always around to rent them out. From backpacking through Europe, to going off to college, to leaving on military deployment, we’re now giving people a chance to make money from cars that would otherwise do nothing.

And this launch is exciting for renters as well. Each Getaway car will now have a brand new feature called “instant rental”—that gives people a chance to rent a car immediately. Each of our Getaway cars will include the Getaround Carkit, that features GPS technology, usage tracking and advanced security protection. Now you can get a car easier than ever, instantaneously.